by Mary Rupert
The old Environmental Protection Agency building in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, will have a new owner – the University of Kansas Health System, which plans a behavioral health and mental health facility there, according to an announcement today.
Vacant for about five years, the old EPA building, with 220,000 square feet, is considered to be one of the anchor buildings for downtown Kansas City, Kansas, at 901 N. 5th St. It is at 5th Street, between Minnesota and Armstrong, right at the city’s gateway from the east.
Downtown Kansas City, Kansas, advocates view the announcement as a boost for the downtown area.
KU Health Systems did not disclose the terms of the building sale, including the purchase price, today. Unified Government property records stated that the county appraised the old EPA building for $9.85 million in 2018. The owner of the building was listed on county records as “901 North Fifth Street LLC,” with the billing name, “Urban America LP.”
Current taxes due on the EPA building for tax year 2017 were listed as $214,045.82, with no back taxes listed on the UG’s property records website page.
According to the announcement, KU Health Systems will move all adult inpatient mental and behavioral health services to the new building in about a year. There also will be administrative offices at the building. There are no immediate plans to move outpatient behavioral services at this time, according to a KU spokeswoman.
A short-term inpatient adult mental and behavioral health unit with 47 beds will be at the new facility, according to the announcement. Patients will stay at the short-term facility from four to six days. The new facility is expected to consolidate the inpatient services at 39th and Rainbow and at the Prairie Ridge facility in Kansas City, Kansas, according to the announcement.
“Kansas City, Kansas, has been our home for more than 100 years,” said Chris Ruder, vice president, patient care services and associate chief nursing officer of The University of Kansas Health System, in a news release. “We have invested more than $750 million in Wyandotte County throughout the past couple of decades, which has allowed us to expand healthcare in our community. This expansion in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, provides the space we need to increase mental and behavioral health services in a full-scale facility for people who need this care in our community, the region and the state.”
The project cost was estimated at $61 million, according to today’s announcement from the KU Health System. The EPA building, about 220,000 square feet, will have about 112,000 square feet for the health care area, according to the announcement. Other health administrative services would be in the building space that is not designated for behavioral health, a spokesman stated. The building will undergo renovation for about a year before opening.
Greg Kindle, president of the Wyandotte Economic Development Council, said the announcement today plays well with the general thinking about how the community continues to move forward about redeveloping downtown, bringing in new investments and bringing new employees to the area.
“Over the coming months, folks will see we are working toward a much bigger, grander plan,” he said. “It takes time.”
Kindle has been working on finding a tenant for the EPA building for about five years.
“We’ve had a lot of interest,” he said. “It’s a nice size, Class A building, with built-in parking. It also had its own set of challenges.”
For some potential users, there were not enough parking spots. A large, beautiful atrium in the building with a beautiful view of the skyline and rivers was a challenge for other potential users, he added. Because of the atrium, only part of the building’s square footage is usable.
KU Health Systems and Hospital has worked on economic development projects in other capacities in the community and has been involved in nearly every other health discussion here, he said. KU Health Systems will be making a substantial investment into the old EPA building, he said.
“This continues the health care investment we are seeing in Wyandotte County,” Kindle said. “We are grateful KU Hospital has the vision and wherewithal to buy the building, and bring employees back downtown who will be more engaged and help us in the revitalization of downtown.”
With this investment, there is now a health care connection from the east side of the community to the west, Kindle said. That is in addition to the main KU Hospital campus on the south side of the community.
He said health care-related facilities now are forming a corridor from the former EPA building in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, to the Children’s Mercy facility at State Avenue and I-635, the Kansas City Kansas Community College nursing programs near the Turner Diagonal and State Avenue, Cerner with a health informatics facility near State Avenue and I-435, Sporting KC and related training programs, and Providence Medical Center near 89th and Parallel Parkway.
Even the American Royal project can be looked at as part of a health corridor, with an animal health program, he added.
Health care is now the largest sector of Wyandotte County employment, with about 19,545 employees in Wyandotte County with an average salary of about $53,500, Kindle said.
The next biggest is manufacturing with 11,092 jobs and an average wage of $64,460, he said.
Jason Norbury, executive director of the Downtown Shareholders, views the announcement as a positive sign for downtown Kansas City, Kansas.
“The KU Health System promises to bring a significant number of quality jobs, which will help increase the activity and interest in downtown Kansas City, Kansas,” Norbury said.
Kindle said the number of jobs at the former EPA building would be estimated at about 100 initially, with several more when the administration portion of the jobs are added.
The EPA moved to its new building in Lenexa, Kansas, in 2012, saying it would save 32 percent of the energy costs of the old building, estimated at millions of dollars in savings over 25 years. The new building in Lenexa was a “green building” designed to save energy costs.
A KU Health Systems spokeswoman stated that they are aware the old EPA building is all-electric and are taking that into account in their planning for renovation and operation of the facility.
The Downtown Shareholders are hoping the announcement today may help spur development.
There is other economic activity currently in the downtown area, Norbury said. During the past year, there has been significant growth in retail sales in the downtown area, he said.
“There is development ongoing on a number of different fronts,” he said. Some projects are still in the planning stages.
One project currently in the planning stages downtown is a modular business incubator, planned to be a structure at 6th and Tauromee that will help new businesses get a start, Norbury said.
The project announcement today is good news for the downtown area, following an action recently at the Unified Government Commission level to put a downtown grocery and YMCA campus project on hold while they work on finding a manager for the grocery. That project was planned for the 11th and State Avenue area.
While Kindle did not have any news he could share with the public about the Healthy Campus project today, he said, “Everybody’s thinking about retail and grocery and how it all fits together. It will – it will all fit together. We hope this is the first of a number of new announcements and a whole new look on downtown Kansas City, Kansas.”